Prime Minister's Office
English rendering of PM’s speech to RWA office bearers & members of Unauthorized Colonies of Delhi
The auspicious festival of Deepawali has just ended and it has been like double Diwali for the people of Delhi, and therefore I heartily congratulate you. I wish you the very best. I was told that all of you have come here to congratulate me. The reality is that I should greet you because many of you have been born in such colonies, which are called illegal. The entire childhood has been spent in facing the same troubles. Even at the time of fulfilling your dreams you had to be in a constant fear of being evicted. You were worried what would happen then; where would you go; how would you live. Decade after decade had passed but you could not get rid of that trouble. You had positive expectations from every government, hope from every system, but you never got any result.
You can relate this entire process with the railway journey. You are sitting inside the train and someone comes and says that this seat has been booked by me. But you will say - no, brother, the TT has made me sit. In the entire journey you will be in a constant pressure of having to get up from the seat any moment. Despite all this you did not lose patience. You have never adopted the path of starting any movement that turned violent. You have tried to cooperate with every government, every system and have been waiting patiently. Attempts were made earlier but those were half-hearted, keeping political calculations in mind. They did everything keeping vote-banks in mind. And in every election this subject was raised and you would turn towards the ones who raised loudest voice on this issue believing that they would work on it. After getting elected they would forget you and this cycle repeated. And as Hardeep Ji said, lakhs of families had come to these places after bearing the terrible shock of partition of India. They were afraid of raising the voice for they feared eviction once again. And that's why their voices died down in a way. Since this government was formed in 2014, we were looking for a solution. There was some hope that the local governments will also take some responsibility but all efforts, all experiments got entangled somewhere. Ultimately, it was decided that whether or not someone does it, we cannot live without doing it; whether someone takes the responsibility or not, we cannot become irresponsible.
We will place as many officers as required. We will put as many people on duty as required for the survey. The Government of India will complete this work with full responsibility. We formulated a policy for the entire region. Even before making that policy, I had a detailed discussion with all your MPs. I discussed every aspect. I asked your MPs to go there and conduct a survey. Both your current and former MLAs were also deployed. Some corporators were also added. But I used to tell everyone that the policy will be the one that has the mantra of 'Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas' embedded in it. The policy will be made only by keeping the soul of it at the center. No single religion or class will be favoured neglecting the other. And there will not be any discrimination among Hindus, Sikhs, Christians and Buddhists while implementing policies anywhere. This is the meaning of 'Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas' and therefore it means that no one will start a procession to oppose this policy; because that person too will benefit if he is entitled. This will change the fate of the entire Delhi. And the fate of India cannot be changed without changing the fate of Delhi.
Secondly, you have seen that since the independence of our country, since the partition of India such a political culture or a tradition has developed in which a decision is kept in a limbo till someone comes and decides. There is a tradition of speaking very nice and sweet things as well as making big promises. It seems like they are doing tremendous amount of work but then it is stuck. They won't let the work finish. They will go to court, or put a stay on the projects. And in the process, the projects will go astray. And after Independence, you can see how many hindrances have come due to this. Uncertainty in life bothers us the most. When you know that you have to board on a train, you have a reserved ticket and you are waiting at the platform; the train is supposed to reach the platform in just five minutes; but suddenly there is an announcement that the train would be late and you don't know when the train will arrive. Now tell me how would you feel at that time? It is a very difficult experience because you do not know when the train will arrive and when will it leave, while you are at the platform. Uncertainty surrounds a man's life. You can imagine the condition of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, because a ‘temporary’ Article 370 was imposed there when the country became independent. In the name of Article 370, such a situation was created that they did not even believe that Delhi would do something for them. I got the opportunity to end this uncertainty and dilemma. You see the Muslim mothers and daughters suffered all these years due to Triple Talaq. They were always in constant fear of getting divorced. Think of those Muslim mothers and daughters who were afraid that they might be thrown out from husband's house in case more salt fell into the vegetables. That means they had a lot of stress in their lives. And think of the father who has given his daughter's hand in wedding with great enthusiasm and joy. He used to be afraid that his daughter might return. Think of that mother and that brother who had the same fear. That is, in a way the whole society was living a life of restlessness. We have eliminated that state of affairs and established stability. In the same way, you too were in a constant fear of visits from the municipal corporation and being evicted from the land. The son has grown up in the house, the wedding is about to take place, a small room has to be fixed but the fear and uncertainty makes life difficult. We have decided to make decisions for the betterment of the public by eliminating all uncertainties.
You must have seen that the day before yesterday, we have taken a decision. It is not a small decision. What is the greatest desire in the life of the middle class family or even the poor? You ask a hundred people and their answer would be to own a house. It is because they know that all the future generations will be able to live under that roof. It is the desire of every human being to have his own roof, own house. The middle class family works hard and saves money. They think of building a house before retirement or before the children grow up and get married. They invest money for the house looking at the great screen, nice brochures, photos, beautiful tiles, marbles and windows, the attractive-looking chandelier, etc. However, later they realize that the money has already been spent, but they are not getting the house. They are forced to stay in a rented accommodation, EMIs are being deducted by the bank for the home loans but they are not getting the possession of the new house. There are housing schemes which are 5 or 10 years old but some projects are only 60% completed, some are 70% completed and some are 80% completed.
If we consider only the major cities in our country, almost four and a half lakh houses are built with the money of some families. Those families have the right over the houses. But 10-20 percent of the work is stuck and that too for five years. The family is neither getting the house nor its money back. The interest on loan and the house rent are also not getting reduced. Finally the government came up with a scheme day before yesterday. About 25-30 thousand crore rupees have been allocated for these four and a half lakh people whose families are living in uncertainty today. The remaining 10-20 per cent of the work for their houses will be completed. Those houses will be handed over to the middle class families. The decisions and the policies should address the problems of the society. Let the people get rid of their troubles and once they get certainty in life, they too feel happy. It needs courage to take such decisions. By 2022, that will mark 75 years of independence, there will be no family in India which will not have its own house. This is a major decision. A huge amount of funds is being used. Crores and crores of houses are being built and when the poor gets a roof, then their attitude towards life also changes. Then the poor feels that now that he has a house, he can bring two chairs and save some money, or bring better beds. Then he thinks of putting a curtain on the window and a mirror on the wall. That means he starts saving. His life begins to change. Then gradually, he would bring scooter home instead of keeping a cycle. Progress happens only when desire arises. And then he will think of buying a bigger house by selling the current house. This is how a human progresses. Somewhere one has to sow seeds, and it changes one's life. And today this government on one hand is scaling new heights of development while on the other hand, is sowing those seeds so that the children who are in your home today will start enjoying the fruits before they grow up.
And so, this is the PM-UDAY scheme. I urge all of you irrespective of the colony you are from, sensible people like you should form a team; take responsibility for all the activities and help the government. The faster you help, the faster you will benefit. And let me tell you the way I work. It will surprise many. An earthquake shook Gujarat in 2001. Thousands of houses were destroyed due to the earthquake. Thousands of people were killed. Schools and hospitals were all destroyed. Now I had to go there as the Chief Minister. When I started working people started complaining that one did not get this benefit or the other did not get that benefit. Now thousands of complaints started coming up. Despite assurances from the government and the officers, the people had in their minds that they did not get anything. And it is in human nature to go and get more. For example, when a man goes to the temple, and hears the sermon of 'speak the truth and do things honestly'. Yet, at the time of ‘Prasad’ distribution he will want more even though he has received it once. This is human nature. And then he feels like breaking the rules. Now what will we do in such a situation? So I requested the Gujarat High Court to give one Judge to me. I decided to set up a court for that judge in Kutch. Now I told the people that to provide the benefit to you, the government has announced several criteria - like Rs.50 thousand for this particular thing, Rs. 1 lakh for that and so on. And everything is in a written format. If you feel that even after this, any injustice has been done to you then you should take these things and go to that court. And there will be no government lawyer in that court. There will be no argument from the government's side. You go and put it in front of the judge and the judge will see that if it is within the rule and the judge will decide. We will agree to his every decision. We will not stand against you. You will be surprised to know that about 35 thousand cases were resolved in that way. The government did not oppose. Here too I would like you to do such a thing so that there will be no dispute later. 'Uday' should start in the true sense. This is the beginning of a new rise of life in Delhi through the PM Uday Yojana. This is the PM Uday Yojana. And so you too can become proactive and read those rules and think about who you can connect with. In such a large city, the people of the colony can decide together, if not today, then after two months, or four months, or six months. Then in the place you live today, you can demolish everything and build a great multi-storey building. You can also get a larger area than where you currently live. And for children, gardens and parks can also be made in that place.
I urge you to join this scheme and you have to change not only your life but also the life of Delhi. And so, you have to support me. A lot has been discussed on this scheme. I am grateful to you for coming and attending this event. I am very thankful to you for giving me a chance to be a part of your happiness. I especially congratulate all the people who have come here after being elected. They have a lot of patience. Otherwise people generally tend to lose patience because they might think nobody has done anything for so many years, what would Modi do? Nobody came but they used to come regularly and monitor the work. I also congratulate Hardeep ji and his team for their willingness to work closely to accomplish this task. The law will be passed as soon as the Parliament starts. As soon as the law is passed, it will be applied to you. So once again I congratulate you very much. I wish you all the best and now you can raise your children on the right path. I wish your children get good education and you live a happy life.
Thanks a lot!